


Is Again Mended

by fallintosanity (yopumpkinhead)



Series: A Bridge Once Broken [8]
Category: Marvel (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies), Wakfu
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-17
Updated: 2015-06-17
Packaged: 2018-04-04 19:01:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4149300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yopumpkinhead/pseuds/fallintosanity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Their daughter is born Jotun, and Loki must face his past one last time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Is Again Mended

Two years later, their daughter was born. Her name was Asmody, and she had cold blue skin and blood-red eyes. Loki spent the first three days after her birth in a state of total panic.

On the fourth morning, Jahanna found him where he’d retreated to his laboratory. She carried Asmody swaddled tightly in her arms, and she handed her to Loki carefully. “Go,” she said.

“I don’t—” Loki said, and stopped, because he didn’t know how to say it. “I can’t—”

“Will you regret it, if you don’t?” Jahanna asked softly, then looked down at their daughter in his arms. “Will _she_ regret it?”

Loki licked his lips. He knew the answer; he himself already regretted that he’d never had the chance. “Yes,” he whispered.

Jahanna smiled, a little sadly; he knew she knew what he was thinking. She gave him a gentle nudge. “Then _go_. Just… bring the both of you back safe, yes?”

Loki nodded, and went.

*             *             *

Farbauti knew he was coming.

Loki didn’t know how she’d known, but two Jotnar guards stood waiting for him when the Bifrost opened and he stepped through into the cold and the ice, his daughter cradled close to his chest. He’d heard Farbauti was a powerful sorceress; perhaps her magic had shown her the future, as Frigga’s did. The guards said nothing, but one motioned for him to follow them, so he did.

He remembered this path, from six years ago when he’d walked it first with Thor and Sif and the Warriors Three, and later gone back on his own. He could see new cracks in the ice, piles of black stone that were all that was left of ancient columns, and felt again the guilt for what he had tried to do. But it also seemed the frost giants had found a silver lining to the destruction, for some places along the path had been cleared of debris and snow, and shimmering new pillars of ice rose in elegant shapes.

The throne room had also been repaired, the walls sculpted fresh, the dormers in the ceiling which let in the dim sunlight cleared of snow. Farbauti sat motionless on the throne of Jotunheim, flanked by her sons Helblindi and Býleistr. Her face was as stone, her blood-red eyes as cold as the ice that surrounded her. Loki fought the urge to curl protectively around his daughter, to turn and run back to the World of Twelve, to do anything other than face the frost giant who’d birthed him.

He stopped a little ways away from the throne, far enough back that he wouldn’t have to crane his neck to look up at her, close enough that he wouldn’t have to shout, and bowed. Carefully calculated, one ruler to another but deep enough to indicate respect. Farbauti did not return the bow, just made a small motion with the fingers of one hand, dismissing the guards.

Only once they were gone did Farbauti speak. “Loki Odinson,” she said, her voice deep and cold and ponderous.

Loki lifted his chin. “Laufeyson,” he corrected her. For the first time, her expression changed, brows drawing down, red eyes narrowing in anger. Loki’s stomach knotted, but he kept speaking: “I am brother to Thor Odinson, and ward of Frigga All-Mother, but no son of Odin am I. Laufey claimed me at the gates of Hel before the Infinity War.”

Beside the throne, Helblindi’s jaw worked, and Loki’s breath caught at the familiarity of the gesture, one he himself made when he was frustrated and angry. He licked his lips and swallowed.

“Why should I believe the Liesmith?” Farbauti asked, and her voice was still emotionless, impossible to read.

“If you have already decided that I am no more than the Liesmith,” Loki answered, and made his voice stay as calm as hers, “then nothing I say or do will change your mind, and I will take my leave now and disturb your realm no more. But I will tell you this: of the many things I did between Thor’s failed coronation and the end of the Infinity War, speaking with Laufey at the gates of Hel is one of the very few I do not regret.”

“What are the others?” Farbauti asked.

She gave no particular weight to the words, but Loki knew what she was thinking all the same. He said simply, “Meeting my wife, and killing Thanos and the Other.”

Farbauti watched him in that heavy silence, and Loki remembered how Laufey had done the same. He did not think she would address the subject any more directly; no mere words would ever be enough to apologize for what he had done to Jotunheim, to Laufey, and Farbauti knew that as well as he did. Better, perhaps, to not make the attempt at all.

Finally she said, “What do you bring before the throne of Jotunheim?”

He met her eyes, green to blood-red. “I bring Laufey’s granddaughter.”

Helblindi’s eyes widened, and Býleistr sucked in a breath through his teeth. Farbauti’s mouth thinned, but she betrayed no other reaction. Loki continued carefully, “The circumstances of my youth left me without knowledge of the rites appropriate for a newborn Jotun. I would ask the throne of Jotunheim for an instructor, so that Laufey’s granddaughter receives an appropriate welcome to the Realms.”

Again Farbauti regarded him in silence. Loki made himself stand straight, unwavering. He was a prince, by birth and training both, and an ambassador by trade. If he could not entirely stop the fear that fluttered in his stomach - fear that was as much of rejection by his birth family as it was for his daughter’s safety - he could ignore it. Asmody slept peacefully in his arms, unaware of the significance of where they stood, and he was glad for it.

Farbauti’s expression was cold and distant, made even harder to read by her blood-red eyes, her scarred blue skin studded with glittering emeralds and onyx. Loki could not begin to guess what she was thinking. Finally she lifted one hand, imperious. “Let me see the child.”

Loki swallowed hard, but kept his spine straight, his steps resolute, as he approached the throne. Farbauti leaned forward, one hand - itself as large as Asmody’s whole body - reaching out to gently brush aside a fold of blanket to better see her tiny blue face. The motion was enough to wake Asmody, and her eyes fluttered open, blood-red in the dim Jotunheim light. Loki rocked her a little, a father’s instinct to keep her from becoming upset. She stared up at Farbauti, and the queen of Jotunheim moved again, letting her finger brush down Asmody’s cheek. The babe turned toward the gesture, mouth working as she sought her mother’s breast, and Loki thought he saw Farbauti’s shoulders ease, just a little.

“How old is she?” Farbauti asked.

“Four days,” Loki answered.

Farbauti nodded to herself. “Good. A child’s first rites must be performed before the seventh moonrise after its birth.” She met Loki’s eyes. “Farbauti’s granddaughter will receive her blessing.”

*             *             *

Twoscore priests performed the rites, in a temple Loki barely recognized as the one in which he’d spent his last hours as Laufey’s infant son. It had been rebuilt, recently so, the walls gleaming with fresh-cut stone and glittering black ice. Loki stood to one side, along with Helblindi, Býleistr, and Farbauti. He had taken his Jotun form, letting the cold and the blue wash over him as they’d walked from the throne room to the temple, and it was startling how comfortable it felt, here in this realm of frozen stone. Farbauti had said nothing, but Loki caught both her sons - his brothers, though the thought was almost too strange to process - staring at him.

Asmody wailed as the head priest carved her first scars, and it was all Loki could do to keep from running to her. But Býleistr put a hand on his shoulder, though his eyes remained fixed on the ritual. “The granddaughter of Laufey and Farbauti is strong,” he said, his voice a slow deep rumble, and Loki gritted his teeth and did not move.

The rituals took the remainder of the day, and when they were over, Býleistr showed Loki to a room where he could sleep. A small cradle made of onyx and ice and lined with soft furs stood beside the bed, and Loki placed Asmody in it to rest. She looked even stranger to his eyes now, with delicate scars decorating her head and shoulders, her arms and her chest. Loki let her clutch his finger and suckle, his attention so focused on her that he almost didn’t notice that Býleistr had remained in the room.

Then Býleistr said quietly, “Helblindi thinks you have no place here.”

Loki licked his lips. “Do you?”

“I don’t know,” Býleistr admitted. “You were raised an Aesir.”

“Thor claims me as his brother, though we share no blood,” Loki said. “It is your choice whether to claim me as yours, though we share nothing but blood.”

“You brought your daughter to us,” Býleistr said. “Why?”

Loki met his eyes, red to red. “The man I once believed to be my father ensured I would never know those whose blood runs in my veins. I will not do the same to my daughter.”

Býleistr looked away, his gaze settling on the child in her crib. For a long time he was silent. Then, so softly Loki almost didn’t hear him, he said, “It doesn’t have to be never.”

His words cut deep into the darkest corners of Loki’s heart, where a few pieces of his shattered soul had not yet fully healed. Loki swallowed hard, and managed to whisper, “I would like that.”

*             *             *

They left Jotunheim the next morning, Asmody once more swaddled tightly in Loki’s arms, Loki’s head swimming with instructions from the priests about when to bring her back for her next rituals. Loki bade farewell to Farbauti, Helblindi, and Býleistr in the throne room; Farbauti said only, “Take care of my granddaughter,” and Helblindi said nothing at all. But Býleistr smiled, just a little, and said, “I’m glad you came, son of Laufey.”

Loki smiled back, some of those last sharp pieces of his soul easing. “Thank you, son of Laufey,” he answered.

Jahanna was waiting for him at the Zaap when he returned to the World of Twelve, along with - much to Loki’s surprise - Thor. Thor grinned when he saw him, and clasped Loki’s neck, though gently enough to not jostle Asmody where she slept in Loki’s arms. “You didn’t think I wouldn’t know she’d been born,” Thor teased.

“I thought you’d be too busy training for the dwarven wrestling bouts,” Loki shot back.

“My niece takes precedence over any tournament,” Thor said firmly. He let go of Loki’s neck and held out his hands. “May I?”

Loki hesitated a moment before handing over his daughter; he felt oddly, unreasonably guilty about his trip to Jotunheim, about taking his daughter for the rituals of her heritage. He realized abruptly that he was still blue, and, even more startling, that Thor had not so much as batted an eye, nor hesitated before touching his frozen skin. Loki met his eyes, and Thor’s smile softened, as if he knew what Loki was thinking. “Jahanna told me where you’d gone,” he said. He looked away, suddenly as awkward as Loki felt, but added, “I’m glad. I know you… were concerned.”

Loki nodded, licked his lips. He settled his daughter into Thor’s arms; Thor pushed back the edge of the blanket much as Farbauti had, so that he could see her face. The movement awakened Asmody and she blinked sleepy red eyes up at Thor. “These look like yours,” Thor said, gaze going from Asmody’s scars to Loki’s.

“They’re birth markings,” Loki told him. The priests had explained, before they’d done the ritual. “They tell of her lineage via Laufey and Farbauti.”

Thor nodded, expression thoughtful and a little sad. Asmody’s tiny face was scrunching up, but before she could begin to cry, Jahanna slid between them, deftly lifting Asmody away from Thor. “You two can keep talking,” she said, “but my daughter is hungry.” Cradling the babe in one arm, she used the other to grasp Loki by the shoulder and stood on her toes to kiss him. “I’ll be in our room. Welcome home.” Loki kissed her back, then she opened a portal and disappeared.

Thor draped an arm over Loki’s shoulders. “She’s not the only one who’s hungry,” he said lightly. “It’s been hours since breakfast.”

“It could be minutes since breakfast and you’d still be looking for your next meal,” Loki joked. He reached for his Aesir form, letting the blue wash away, and opened his mouth to tease Thor further.

But Thor stopped, catching Loki’s gaze, his face worried. “You don’t have to—” and he gestured vaguely at Loki’s body— “for me, brother, it’s fine—”

Loki stared at him for a moment, then rolled his eyes and grinned. “I’m not doing it for you,” he said. “I’m just warm. The Jotnar form was not designed for temperate climes.”

Thor blinked, then looked away, an embarrassed smile on his lips. “Oh,” he said.

“Though the sentiment is sweet, I must say,” Loki added lightly. “Very endearing. I’m touched, truly—”

Thor shoved him. “You’re touched, all right,” he shot back. “In the head.”

Of course, the only appropriate response to that was for Loki to tackle Thor to the ground. When they finally made it back to Loki and Jahanna’s rooms, they were both covered in dirt and grass and leaves, still laughing too hard to speak. Jahanna sighed when she saw them, but she was smiling, too. They managed to clean up without getting into another tussle, and settled into the greatroom with her. Chibi and little Hade played with one of the Eliacubes on the floor, taking turns shifting its shape, while Tikalukatal, in his man’s form and with Grougal dozing on his lap, watched them. Jahanna, still holding Asmody to her breast, curled against Loki’s side, and Thor sat against his other shoulder.

And somewhere deep inside Loki, the last tiny broken bits of his soul lightened, the peace of this moment softening their sharp edges and easing them gently, finally, into place. 

**Author's Note:**

> And that's it for this series! I promised I'd leave the characters in a better place than when they started, and hopefully I managed to do so. Thank you all for sticking with me for all this time (and for almost 300,000 words!) - I couldn't have done this without all of you. ^_^


End file.
